ABSTRACT: In response to the Vieques 2014 FQXi Conference on the Physics of Information (http://fqxi.org/conference/2014), this colloquium brings together over a dozen neuroscientists, physicists and medical researchers to provide a body of empirical data both supporting and extending the quantum information hypotheses recently advanced by Koch, Tononi and Tegmark.

Specifically, the evidence presented by the participants describes numerous controlled studies documenting nonlocal correlations between physical parameters of isolated living and non-living targets, as a result of operators’ mental intention, often in conjunction with changes in the target’s biophoton signatures. However, some of the results also suggest that elemental consciousness might not be a property of matter alone, as these quantum versions of panpsychism claim – but possibly a property of spacetime itself.

Although relevant clues are scarce at this point, the discussion aims to provide a stepping stone toward the better integration of quantum information theory and applicable experimental models, paving the way to a neuroscience freed from the current neuro-dogmas.

ABSTRACT An archaeoacoustic study was recently conducted within the prehistoric cave system of El Castillo in northern Spain. With findings dating back at least 40800 years, archaeological studies of this cave have revealed the presence of prehistoric ritual activity associated with early shamanism. Simulated audio tones of varying frequencies were created and emitted from the location at which it is thought the shamans would conduct rituals within El Castillo, while the sound was simultaneously recorded from the likely location of potential observers or participants. Subsequent analysis identified a frequency-dependent amplification of recorded sound intensity for frequencies approaching the range of 100 Hz, with the greatest effect observed for 108 and 110 Hz. These results are markedly consistent with previous research of important or sacred sites which have shown significant sonic resonance features within this precise range of frequencies. Additional consideration is applied to the potential effects of 110 Hz physical stimuli on biological systems in the context of neurotheology and the associated biophysical analyses in order to demonstrate the potential importance of 110 Hz signals on religious experience and subjective states of consciousness.

The oldest known medical report of a near-death experience has been discovered. You never know what you will find at those antique shops. You can read the article here http://www.livescience.com/46993-oldest-medical-report-of-near-death-experience.html . The Resuscitation article (there is a link in the Livescience.com article) not only describes the report but also evaluates the NDE using the Greyson criteria. The reported NDE obtains a score of 12/32. A score of more than 7 is considered a positive NDE.

]]>davidschumacher5@gmail.com (David Schumacher)Paranormal News From Around the WorldThu, 07 Aug 2014 18:13:34 +0000New PRG Research Paper: Eight Years of FieldREG Data and Research at Reportedly Haunted Locations and with Poltergeist Agents.http://www.paranormalresearchgroup.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=47:new-prg-research-paper-eight-years-of-fieldreg-data-and-research-at-reportedly-haunted-locations-and-with-poltergeist-agents&Itemid=211
http://www.paranormalresearchgroup.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=47:new-prg-research-paper-eight-years-of-fieldreg-data-and-research-at-reportedly-haunted-locations-and-with-poltergeist-agents&Itemid=211

The Paranormal Research Group (PRG) originally started in Wisconsin in 1999 and has conducted scientific investigations of ghost and haunt phenomena throughout the United States. Since 2006 the PRG has been running Random Event Generators (REGs) during investigations of various reportedly haunted locations and poltergeist agents. The current report summarizes eight years of FieldREG data and research in reportedly haunted locations and with poltergeist agents. Further detailed analysis of this data is forthcoming.

PRG Director, Dave Schumacher, has been invited to become a full time member of the Transnational Anomalies Research team. Dave’s role with the team will include experimental design, data analyst and authoring reports and publications. Transnational Anomalies Research (TAR) is an international collaborative research initiative founded by Joey M. Caswell and Dr. J. Miguel Gaona in 2013. The TAR team consists of members across Canada, Spain, the U.S.A., and the UK, with diverse specializations and backgrounds including neuroscience, psychology, physics, anthropology, and engineering. Our overall goal is the study of consciousness and physical anomalies by employing a transdisciplinary research approach. Some of our main areas of study include investigating the potential effects of consciousness on external random physical systems, long-term tracking and analysis of precognitive predictions, archaeoacoustic studies of ancient geographical sites, and theoretical/methodological development of paranthropological approaches to anomalous phenomena. Our research is conducted both in the laboratory and in the field.

DAVE SCHUMACHER REVIEWED AND WAS ACKNOWLEDGED FOR HIS HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS IN THE FOLLOWING PUBLICATION:

Dave Schumacher and Jennifer Lauer of the PRG's Anomalous Research Department are working with the Transnational Anomalies Research Team (http://tarteam.org/) on a new manuscript for publication to explore if focused intent followed by non-focused intent of an apparent RSPK human agent in a field setting results in directional (+/-) REG non-random output, and whether these deviations are consistent with the emotional valence theory regarding the directional component of the data, a theory developed by TAR and which have been studied in various novel settings by TAR and PRG.

Two recent publications in mainstream journals may have found and reported on something that those in the parapsychology field - Presentiment - an intuitive feeling about the future, especially one of foreboding. Parapsychological researchers have been doing studies on this phenomenon for many years. The studies showed the presentiment effect in skin conductance, heart rate, EEG measures and fMRI.

Ongoing variability in neural signaling is an intrinsic property of the brain. Often this variability is considered to be noise and ignored. However, an alternative view is that this variability is fundamental to perception and cognition and may be particularly important in decision-making. Here, we show that a momentary measure of occipital alpha-band power (8–13 Hz) predicts choices about where human participants will focus spatial attention on a trial-by-trial basis. This finding provides evidence for a mechanistic account of decision-making by demonstrating that ongoing neural activity biases voluntary decisions about where to attend within a given moment.

Spontaneous fluctuations of ongoing neural activity substantially affect sensory and cognitive performance. Because bodily signals are constantly relayed up to the neocortex, neural responses to bodily signals are likely to shape ongoing activity. Here, using magnetoencephalography, we show that in humans, neural events locked to heartbeats before stimulus onset predict the detection of a faint visual grating in the posterior right inferior parietal lobule and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, two regions that have multiple functional correlates and that belong to the same resting-state network. Neither fluctuations in measured bodily parameters nor overall cortical excitability could account for this finding. Neural events locked to heartbeats therefore shape visual conscious experience, potentially by contributing to the neural maps of the organism that might underlie subjectivity. Beyond conscious vision, our results show that neural events locked to a basic physiological input such as heartbeats underlie behaviorally relevant differential activation in multifunctional cortical areas.

Two recent publications in mainstream journals may have found and reported on something that those in the parapsychology field - Presentiment - an intuitive feeling about the future, especially one of foreboding. Parapsychological researchers have been doing studies on this phenomenon for many years. The studies showed the presentiment effect in skin conductance, heart rate, EEG measures and fMRI.

Ongoing variability in neural signaling is an intrinsic property of the brain. Often this variability is considered to be noise and ignored. However, an alternative view is that this variability is fundamental to perception and cognition and may be particularly important in decision-making. Here, we show that a momentary measure of occipital alpha-band power (8–13 Hz) predicts choices about where human participants will focus spatial attention on a trial-by-trial basis. This finding provides evidence for a mechanistic account of decision-making by demonstrating that ongoing neural activity biases voluntary decisions about where to attend within a given moment.

Spontaneous fluctuations of ongoing neural activity substantially affect sensory and cognitive performance. Because bodily signals are constantly relayed up to the neocortex, neural responses to bodily signals are likely to shape ongoing activity. Here, using magnetoencephalography, we show that in humans, neural events locked to heartbeats before stimulus onset predict the detection of a faint visual grating in the posterior right inferior parietal lobule and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, two regions that have multiple functional correlates and that belong to the same resting-state network. Neither fluctuations in measured bodily parameters nor overall cortical excitability could account for this finding. Neural events locked to heartbeats therefore shape visual conscious experience, potentially by contributing to the neural maps of the organism that might underlie subjectivity. Beyond conscious vision, our results show that neural events locked to a basic physiological input such as heartbeats underlie behaviorally relevant differential activation in multifunctional cortical areas.

Note: This article originally appeared in Investigating The Haunted – Ghost Hunting Taken to the Next Level [1]. It has been revised and updated with new information as of June 2014.

Orbs here, there and everywhere!

Eventually you will stumble across the topic of orbs no matter where you go for paranormal information. Orbs were and still are a hot topic of debate among paranormal investigators. There are a variety of hypotheses on what they are, where they come from and why they are captured on cameras. Paranormal explanations include ghosts, spirits, angels, fairies and poltergeists [2-5]. At the opposite end are those explanations that are very natural and include dust, bugs, water vapor and/or artifacts created by the digital camera itself [6-7].

While debate continues between the hardcore believers and skeptics, what does the published literature tells us about the real origin and causes of orbs?

There are three main views on orbs [8]:

The rationalist view – All orbs have a natural explanation.

Minority belief – Some orbs have a natural explanation while others have a paranormal explanation.

Rejection-of-rationalism – All orbs are paranormal.

Those who hold the rationalist view believe that all orbs have a natural explanation and there is no link to the paranormal. Natural causes of orbs include:

Stray reflections (often from a high powered flash close to the lens) from shiny objects in the environment are re-reflected off of the lens surface. This can even occur without a flash! All it takes is just a light source and/or shiny object that reflect light into the camera lens.

There is diffraction from the flash reflecting off of dust, dirt, pollen or other particles near but not on the lens [7].

The phenomenon known as ‘blooming.’ This is the bleed-over from one pixel to another [9]. This is mainly attributed to the older and lower mega pixel digital cameras.

The Association for Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) determined that orbs are light reflected off of an object near the lens and are within a small angle between the digital camera’s flash or IR light on a video camera. This area close to the lens and flash and at a certain angle has been termed the Orb Zone [8, 11-12].

Support for the Orb Zone theory comes from two studies done by researchers in the UK. The results were [8, 12].

There was no difference in the number of orb photos between haunted and non-haunted locations.

Increasing the depth of field increased the number of orbs.

There were more orbs while using a flash in low light conditions compared to not using a flash under the same conditions.

Increasing the distance of the flash from the camera lens resulted in fewer orbs.

The 35mm film camera had fewer orb pictures then digital camera pictures.

There were fewer orbs when using a higher mega pixel setting versus a low mega pixel setting.

One can see that the data strongly supports the view that all orbs are not paranormal and most can be attributed to natural causes. However, these studies could not definitively rule out the possibility that some orbs are paranormal in nature and a number paranormal investigators claim that a small minority of orbs (1 to 2%) could have a paranormal causation. Therefore, more research with a new approach was needed.

Steven Parsons of Para.Science devised a novel experiment utilizing stereo photography to test the hypothesis that orbs are nothing more than airborne matter that reflect the light of the flash back toward the camera (i.e. proof of the Orb Zone hypothesis) [13]. If an orb was seen in only one picture of the stereo pair and not the other then that would indicate the source of the orb producing material was in the angle of the view between the flash and the lens and it was close to the lens (in the Orb Zone). However, if the orb showed up in both pictures and in the exact same location then the object was outside of the Orb Zone and other origins of the orb should be considered.

Parsons used a Fujifilm W1 3D camera for the experiment. The stereo pairs of the two pictures were identical with regard to flash and flash settings, image systems and exposure. The only difference was in the parallax – the displacement of difference in apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight.

1,870 stereo pairs of pictures were taken at a variety of haunted locations and 1,000 pictures were taken at non-haunted locations. In the haunted locations, 491 pairs had an orb in the right or left picture only and 139 pairs contained an orb in both pictures but not in the same place. The results were the same in the non-haunted locations. The data supported the Orb Zone hypothesis and indicates that orbs have a natural cause.

Parsons also noted that if the 1-2% of orb pictures were paranormal, as claimed by ghost hunters and paranormal groups, then approximately 6 to 12 paired photos in the study should have been potentially paranormal (i.e. an orb would have appeared in both images in the same location). This was not the case. None of the pictures indicated a paranormal causation for orbs.

There is enough evidence to now indicate that orbs found in digital photos have natural explanations. With that being said, paranormal investigators and ghost hunters will still get orb pictures simply based on the nature of the equipment used. These naturally caused orb photos can be reduced by:

Does psi exist? Is there evidence to support the notion of precognition? Can we see into the future? These are some the questions that parapsychologists have been asking and researching for over 130 years.

The last four years have seen a renewed interest in the field and a renewed debate due to the publication of a precognition experiment in a major widely respected research journal.

The following is a recap of the studies and meta-analyses that have been conducted and published since 2011.

In 2011 Daryl Bem published the following article, “Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect.” This article described nine studies with over 1,000 participants in the area of anomalous retroactive influence (i.e.: precognition). The experiments were simple, participants were from the general population, there was no specialized instrumentation, each session took less than 30 minutes and the statistical analysis was nothing more than a t-test.

All but one of the studies obtained statistically significant results. The overall results were Stouffer’s Z=6.66; p=1.34x10-11; mean effect size d=0.22. p values less than 0.01 or 0.05 are typical for rejecting the null hypothesis of an experiment. Therefore, this result would indicate a very strong presumption against the null hypothesis or another way to say it - strong evidence for precognition [1].

This study was immediately presented by parapsychologists and believers of evidence of psi. Other researchers and skeptics criticized the study methodology, analysis and interpretation [2, 3]. Bem later replied and defended his study and data [4]. Other scientists attempted to replicate some of Bem’s work, but failed [5-7]. The debate continued and a registry was created to track the attempts to replicate Bem’s experiments [8].

Then in 2012, a meta-analysis was done covering 26 experiments from 1978 to 2010. The overall results were Z= 6.9 ;p < 2.7 × 10-12; and mean Effect Size of 0.21 [9]. This data would again lean in favor of psi.

Now, in 2014, Bem et. al. [10] have submitted a meta-analysis of 90 experiments dealing with precognition (or as the title of the paper prefers to say, “Anomalous Anticipation of Random Future Events”). The overall results of this analysis were: a Hedges’ g of 0.09 (another way to express effect size), Z= 6.33; p = 1.2 × 10-10.

So, where does this leave us? Some studies showed positive results, while others gave negative results. The meta-analyses make a strong case for something anomalous occurring in these studies and give credence to precognition. No matter what the final decision is on precognition and psi phenomena, it is encouraging to see a data based debate is occurring and the scientific method is being applied to find the answers!

The present single-case study examined functional brain imaging patterns in a participant that reported being able, at will, to produce somatosensory sensations that are experienced as her body moving outside the boundaries of her physical body all the while remaining aware of her unmoving physical body. We found that the brain functional changes associated with the reported extra-corporeal experience (ECE) were different than those observed in motor imagery. Activations were mainly left-sided and involved the left supplementary motor area and supramarginal and posterior superior temporal gyri, the last two overlapping with the temporal parietal junction that has been associated with out-of-body experiences. The cerebellum also showed activation that is consistent with the participant’s report of the impression of movement during the ECE. There was also left middle and superior orbital frontal gyri activity, regions often associated with action monitoring. The results suggest that the ECE reported here represents an unusual type of kinesthetic imagery.

People who report objects moving in their presence, unusual sounds, glows around other people, and multiple sensed presences but do not meet the criteria for psychiatric disorders have been shown to exhibit electrical anomalies over the right temporal lobes. This article reports the striking quantitative electroencephalography, sLORETA results, and experimental elicitation of similar subjective experiences in a middle-aged woman who has been distressed by these classic phenomena that began after a head injury. She exhibited a chronic electrical anomaly over the right temporoinsular region. The rotation of a small pinwheel near her while she ‘concentrated’ upon it was associated with increased coherence between the left and right temporal lobes and concurrent activation of the left prefrontal region. The occurrence of the unusual phenomena and marked ‘sadness’ was associated with increased geomagnetic activity; she reported a similar mood when these variations were simulated experimentally. Our quantitative measurements suggest people displaying these experiences and possible anomalous energies can be viewed clinically and potentially treated.